


But The Greatest

by sevenall



Series: Mercy Street [4]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Mercy Street AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-22
Updated: 2016-04-22
Packaged: 2018-06-03 19:19:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6623041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sevenall/pseuds/sevenall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nanao cannot see her path, much less anyone else's.</p>
            </blockquote>





	But The Greatest

It's almost midnight by the time the last guests leave Hanaya. Ise Nanao walks them to the gate and after the customary courtesies and bows have been exchanged, she sees them into the waiting taxis. Once they are all gone and Nanao is certain they will not return to pick up forgotten keys, gloves or wallets, she douses the lantern by the gate; she doesn't need it to find her way back. Her feet knows every step of the path so well that she could walk it blindfolded without straying. And in the dark she can let her smile slip a little with no one being the wiser.

She allowed the girls to leave about an hour ago and the only light still on is in her own office, where the paperwork of the day waits. Apart from the bookkeeping and filing that comes with any business, there are also notes from the girls, scraps and pieces of information to be integrated into fact, and perhaps one or two requests to talk to mama-san privately. Naturally, Nanao's door is always open to her girls, though they respect her too much to approach her very often. On the rare occasion that a guest has a complaint, she has usually heard the girl's side ofit already and can take appropriate action. Though it is hard to tell what might be appropriate sometimes, for example, this evening, when the newest girl, Diana announced that she would leave Hanaya to get married to a certain businessman, whose divorce would be final any day and oh, by the way, she was pregnant.

While it's entirely in order to leave to get married, the businessman is not Diana's patron, which is improper, and though Nanao is sorry to have misjudged her, the girl has to be let go. Hanaya has its standards and those are what the guests are paying for. That's not to say that Nanao will abandon her soon-to-be former employee. If she thought the businessman was a honourable person or that her file on him contained anything useful, she would use all her influence to bring about their wedding. But the businessman, though a regular, has given Nanao no reason to think him honourable, and sweet, naive Diana could never be happy in a forced marriage. The comfort and safety would mean nothing to her, if her husband resented her. Better to find ways in which she can provide for herself and the child to be; she'll need a place to live, another job and daycare. Nanao decides to call some of her contacts come morning, starting with Shunsui.

How strange that she always thinks of him as Shunsui, while his companion is forever Ukitake-san in her mind. But then he always calls her Nanao-chan, his lovely Nanao-chan to be exact, and she has grown used to the familiarity and his high spirits. When she calls him, she knows he'll lament that she doesn't believe in love and she'll snap at him, then he'll tease and cajole her out of her mood. She's rather looking forward to it.

She puts the lantern down outside the door. The stars are coming out, pin-pricks of light glittering faintly against the glow of city static and white noise. Nanao cannot see her path, much less anyone else's. Perhaps she's wrong. Perhaps she was always wrong.

"I hope you get your businessman, Diana-chan," she whispers into the night, because while Shunsui is right and believing is quite beyond her, hope is not.

THE END


End file.
